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Snake Eyes/Storm Shadow Origins pt 3
Jun. 9th, 2019 11:31 amGI Joe: A Real American Hero #27 (1984) - Larry Hama and Frank Springer
As one must, Storm Shadow bursts in through the window of the Soft Master’s shop, steals the evidence of his crime, and flees. Snake Eyes pursues and it all ends up where it was always destined to… a dramatic fight atop a train.
( Read more... )
There's a lot I like about what Hama did here, especially given when this story was written. Ninjas were the disposable foreign enemy of choice in the 80's. Ninjas didn't get to be good guys unless they were 1) white guys, 2) mentoring white guys, or 3) turtles about a decade later. So revealing that Storm Shadow had been wrongly accused by everyone - up to and including our noble, badass hero, Snake Eyes - was definitely not SOP.
Not only that, but even though Storm is absolutely revenge driven (we'll see more on that later), even before Snake Eyes saves his life, none of that desire for vengeance is directed at Snake Eyes once Storm realizes who he is. Storm is really damn quick to let bygones be bygones between them afterward, even reaffirming his love for his friend and hopes for their eventual reunion. Big ol' subversion of the expected tropes all around.
It also - most likely unintentionally - makes Snake Eyes look like a goober for believing in Storm's guilt (but at least he's appropriately shaken by the end of it all), and that's something that gets flattened when Storm and Snake's animosity gets reimagined as a childhood rivalry for the movies. Snakes Eyes as an adult bears more responsibility for his actions; as a child, the responsibility was on the adults around him to assess the situation (instead of writing off a 12-year-old with anger issues as a murderer). But that's not a complaint per se... childhood trauma is so much fun to write, after all.
As one must, Storm Shadow bursts in through the window of the Soft Master’s shop, steals the evidence of his crime, and flees. Snake Eyes pursues and it all ends up where it was always destined to… a dramatic fight atop a train.
( Read more... )
There's a lot I like about what Hama did here, especially given when this story was written. Ninjas were the disposable foreign enemy of choice in the 80's. Ninjas didn't get to be good guys unless they were 1) white guys, 2) mentoring white guys, or 3) turtles about a decade later. So revealing that Storm Shadow had been wrongly accused by everyone - up to and including our noble, badass hero, Snake Eyes - was definitely not SOP.
Not only that, but even though Storm is absolutely revenge driven (we'll see more on that later), even before Snake Eyes saves his life, none of that desire for vengeance is directed at Snake Eyes once Storm realizes who he is. Storm is really damn quick to let bygones be bygones between them afterward, even reaffirming his love for his friend and hopes for their eventual reunion. Big ol' subversion of the expected tropes all around.
It also - most likely unintentionally - makes Snake Eyes look like a goober for believing in Storm's guilt (but at least he's appropriately shaken by the end of it all), and that's something that gets flattened when Storm and Snake's animosity gets reimagined as a childhood rivalry for the movies. Snakes Eyes as an adult bears more responsibility for his actions; as a child, the responsibility was on the adults around him to assess the situation (instead of writing off a 12-year-old with anger issues as a murderer). But that's not a complaint per se... childhood trauma is so much fun to write, after all.
